how much does it cost to build a poleboat or broadbill?

M

michael barnes

Active member
4 sheets of 1/4" 4x8 and 1 1/2" sheet meranti hydrotec ply with crating and shipping 440.00
16' 1x8 fir 20.00
2 rolls 50 yard 8oz tape 52.00
10 yard 60" 6 oz cloth 65.00
5gallon epoxy kit 270.00
guesstimate for the epoxy and cloth shipping 70.00
epoxy paint, best guess 120.00?
that comes out to 1020.00. lets say to be safe 1200.00 will cover it.
the devlin site says 1800.00 for the poleboat, and 2400.00 for the broadbill. i was wondering what i missed that my materials list came out cheaper?
thanks for any help.
 
I think your error was in calculating cost of the epoxy, price you have listed looks like cost of plain ole fashioned fibrglass resin
 
Maybe I missed it somewhere in your run down, but what about hardware? I know on the Clark Craft Website for the 14' Broadbill, there's a bronze fastening kit (nails, etc). Then you have cleats, drains and plugs, wiring, lights, battery... And on and on. Oh, how about grass rails? More $.

Ask my wife, there's no doubt I could double a project budget of $1200.
 
Mike,
The epoxy amount does look low and I was able to pick up my plywood. I think mine (Poleboat ) was closer to $1,000.00 but then I thought it was about 40 # lighter than it actually is so consider the source. The Devlin estimates are safe for all the variables but may be a bit high. I also had left over hardware and some other parts.
 
here is the epoxy i was looking at
http://uscomposites.com/epoxy.html
is the an off brand, and is that why its so cheap, or am i missing something else? prob so, i am a noob after all ;). thanks for the info, i appreciate it.
 
US Composites are the least expensive epoxies on the market. I have never heard a bad thing about them on the various boat forums. It is the prefered epoxy for the hybrid builders.

You do not want the slow hardener it is too temperature dependant for its cure time. Go with the medium speed stuff.

Get the pumps as they make it much easier to get the right mix.

Start collecting yogurt, margerine, cream cheese containers (the white plastic ones) now . They are "free" and work really well with epoxy since they are made out of poly propylene - PP next to the recycle triangle thingy.

You need to add the lumber to make your building frame or table to your list.

Epoxy paint might be overkill but is a good way to protect the FG. Lou's marine enamel paint might save a little money and be more suited to a hunting boat since it comes in a variety of camo colors.

You need to add in about $100 for brushes, stir sticks, and squeege supplies. There are many options for buying this stuff. I would buy china chip brushes from Lee Valley Tools on line - get their box of various sized brushes. Get a pack of auto body filler squeeges at a car parts store. They are made out of PP and epoxy will not stick to them easily. I never found the FG ridge rollers useful and they were so hard to clean that I ended up throwing them away and at $15 each that was a lot of money compared to $2 for a squeege that worked better anyway.

Make an epoxy mixer out of one of a dowl or an arrow shaft by drilling two sheet rock screws into one end like blades and use a corded drill to spin it. I use a 12" piece of metal arrow shaft with dowls in each end so that it can't be crushed. The drill powered mixer saves a lot of time when mixing big pots of epoxy and gets a good mix going so that your cure time is consistant.
 
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I don't think Devlin recommends Hydrotek as a plywood. Not that there is anything wrong with it necessarily, but it's not okuome or meranti. Those two are more expensive.
 
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica],,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but it's not okuome or meranti.

Huh?? The link here says that it is indeed made from Meranti veneers.

"[/font]Hydrotek Meranti is a multi-ply marine plywood that is superior to all standard Meranti plywood currently produced. Both face and inner plies are constructed from whole piece, color matched, Meranti veneers. Hydrotek is used in boat building applications where only the best will do. Hydrotek's durable rating will ensure that you are using a marine plywood that will last."

CK, If it's not meranti, what is it? Are we being defrauded by those selling Hydrotek? I'm curious now.
 
huntindave, that is the same place i was getting my prices, and saw that it was called maranti.
ray, thanks for that list, its a big help, i have never built a boat before, so that was a big help.
thanks to all who responded, big big help.
 
2-part foam is not cheap, and metal covering for the keelsons (aluminum or brass half-round), wood flour

Hardware was mentioned- check Hamilton Marine or Jamestown; screws are best bought by the box. Amazing how screws, cleats, grab-handles, lights, wiring, oarlocks, drain tube, etc can add up.

seems my Broadbill cost about $1200+ in 2001, so I'm surprised too.

Have fun with the build and post pics!

-Bill

BTW- If you do not increase teh size of the Broadbill and build to plan, you can get by with 3 sheets of hull/deck/side vs. the 4. Of course, it would also be nice to have a piece of okoume for a lid.
 
Perhaps I wrote too quickly about it being meranti. What I have seen is boatbuilders recommending against using Hydrotek where the other two were specified by species. Not sure why, but it was not considered quite up to snuff for some reason.
 
yeah, kind of, im still trying to decide what to do. i just got tired of posting all the problems i was finding with the starcraft, but since you asked....lol
i began stripping the paint off the boat, and i kept finding these little deposits of white powdery corrosion all along the boat hull, on the out side. after i got down to bare metal, i found tiny pits EVERYWHERE on the hull, prob 8-10 little 1/8" pits per square inch of the boat. they didnt go all the way through, maybe 1/3 or so. i posted about this on tinboats.net, and was told that someone used the boat as a ground for their battery, and caused electrolysis, eating away at the whole boat. that, along with the transom that was eaten up from brass drain holes and steel bolts, i wasnt sure is it was worth, or even safe fixing. so theres how that went. im still checking out craigs list for boats every, and if i can find a boat similar to the starcraft, or a 1442 or bigger jon, that is definitely the way im gonna go. i still want to build a boat eventually, and was just asking to get ideas for what it needed.
 
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